‘“Depend upon it, Sir”, said Dr
Samuel Johnson, “when a man knows he is
to be hanged in a fortnight, it
concentrates his mind wonderfully.”
Something similar may be said of a man
who is diagnosed with an incurable
disease which normally carries a
prognosis of about six months.
‘But if that is true, what kind of self-
delusion would lead him to the text that
forms the title to this book: “I shall
not die, but live …”? Not, certainly,
any thought of dodging the arrow that
has brought down every man since the
fall of Adam. Rather, it is the thought
that he must now focus on the things
that really matter, together with the
conviction that, in sober reality, he
will not die till his work is done, till
the things that God has intended he
should accomplish are accomplished. Till
then, “I shall not die, but live”; and
what could be more worth doing than what
the Psalmist speaks of next: “and
declare
the works of the Lord”?
So wrote Douglas Taylor as he began his
blog, ‘Works Worth Declaring’ on June 7,
2011. For the next three years, until
his last and 651st post on May 8, 2014,
he was enabled to testify to God’s
saving and keeping grace.
In so doing his words had a profound
impact on many around the world. ‘Thank
you, Douglas for your wonderful blog. It
has taught and encouraged me so much’,
one lady wrote. Another noted, ‘I am so
happy to have found your blog! I have a
friend who is on her own journey with
cancer … I sent the link to your blog to
my friend.’ A reader from Louisville,
Kentucky, wrote to Douglas to say, ‘I
just found your blog and it brought
tremendous encouragement to see your
unwavering faith in the goodness of our
God.’
This selection of about 245 blog posts
is full of gospel comfort. It will
minister fresh hope to those who, like
Douglas Taylor, may have only a short
time left on this earth. But it will
also be very helpful to busy pastors who
often inquire as to where they can point
those who need fresh faith and hope in
the midst of serious illness. Here is an
excellent resource, the focus of which
is not on a dying man but on the living
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has
‘abolished death’ and ‘brought life and
immortality to light through the gospel’
(2 Tim 1:10).